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from
mefi
"This is the story of when I re-wrote the Lotus Notes Formula Engine....
So here was I was, offered this position that I clearly wasn't qualified for. I had no experience with language runtimes or compilers, I knew very little about C and didn't know anything about C++, I had never dealt with platform byte ordering and packing and all the other issues associated with writing something for eight different operating systems, I had never even used proper version control. But none of that mattered to me. It seemed to me like an amazing opportunity and I would be doing exactly the kind of stuff I enjoy most..."
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 10:00 AM on November 24, 2007
(64 comments)
My favorite piece of music is Stravinsky's "Petrouchka."
(Scroll down to the 2002-2003 Season for mp3s.) Today, I was blown away by
this recording (CD for purchase, alas) of parts of the piece
played on accordion. (If you're a Stravinsky fan, please do yourself a favor and acquire this CD!). I've always associated accordions with
polkas (and
Ennio Morricone music ... and, of course, the
Doctor Who theme). I never
knew they were rich enough to
stand in for a whole
orchestra! And I didn't know much about accordions used in
classical music. Anyway, back to
Petrouchka: here are videos of the ballet:
bit,
I II,
III,
IV.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 7:41 AM on November 10, 2007
(14 comments)
"How I Became A Programmer"
veers between linear biography and brain dump. The piece meanders through its theme, stopping along the way to flirt with word origins, family politics, the senior prom, Japan, airlines and military recruitment. Reading it, I felt trapped inside inside an extremely quirky -- yet recognizable (in a too-close-for-comfort way) -- mind. About half the time I yearned to tell him that he needs an editor; the other half, I was grateful that he didn't have one. Mostly, I'm amazed he HAD a date to the senior prom!
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 7:45 PM on August 18, 2007
(52 comments)
"The old, mean man" vs. "The mean old man."
Here's an aspect of English (and other languages) I've never thought of before. If you're using a string of adjectives, there's a natural order for them to appear in: "opinion :: size :: age :: shape :: color :: origin :: material :: purpose". (Although I find "old, mean," due to it's strange order, sort of striking.) [more info:
1,
2,
3]
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 11:58 AM on May 19, 2007
(92 comments)
"Someone in a Tree" -- an incedibly rare video from the original, 1976 production of "Pacific Overtures."
I grew up listening to an L.P. of these same people perform this same song, but I've never before seen them perform it. I grew up in Southern Indiana, so actually seeing a Broadway show was out of the question. But I loved this song, and -- years later -- I read that it was Stephen Sondheim's favorite of all the songs he ever wrote. Today, I found this video on YouTube and it was like finally seeing someone after being blind for years. I still have chills running up and down my spine. Also: Sondheim
forum, online
journal, and various gems (and bombs) on
youtube -- including
the man himself teaching a master class and
this 12-year-old's spirited performance!
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 1:33 PM on April 28, 2007
(14 comments)
Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?
This trait ... is inherited by 15 to 20% of the population, and ... seems to be present in all higher animals. Being an HSP means your nervous system is more sensitive to subtleties. Your sight, hearing, and sense of smell are not necessarily keener .... But your brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply. Being an HSP also means, necessarily, that you are more easily overstimulated, stressed out, overwhelmed. This trait ... has been mislabeled as shyness (not an inherited trait), introversion (30% of HSPs are actually extraverts), inhibitedness, fearfulness, and the like. HSPs can be these, but none of these are the fundamental trait they have inherited
...
yahoo group |
latest research (fascinating!) |
newsletter |
wikipedia |
blog |
via
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 12:19 PM on April 8, 2007
(154 comments)
Jeff Hawkins,
co-founder of
Palm and Handspring, has started a new company, called
Numenta, to test his
controversial theory of intelligence. Whether you find his theory plausible or not, his
book, "
On Intelligence" is fascinating. Numenta is attempting to build A.I.s using Hawkins' theory as a backbone. They've developed a software engine and a
Python-based API, which they've made public (
as free downloads), so that hackers can start playing. They've also released
manuals,
a whitepaper (pdf) and videos [
1] [
2]. (At about 30:18 into the first video, Hawkins demonstrates, with screenshots, the first app which uses his system.)
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 1:35 PM on April 4, 2007
(22 comments)
When I was a kid, my dad, who grew up in London, during the Blitz, used to play this old record: a song called "The Laughing Policeman."
It always put a smile on my face. According to
Wikipedia, it was written in 1922 by Charles Jolly, who wrote "numerous other laughing songs (The Laughing Major, Curate, Steeplechaser, Typist, Lover, etc)." If you want to hear the happiest policeman ever,
here's the mp3. The song has inspired
cartoonists,
mystery novelists (great series, by the way!),
filmmakers, a
more-recent recording (
mp3), and, inevitably, some
scary people on youtube. Speaking of youtube,
this is how I remember the song.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 12:05 PM on February 11, 2007
(41 comments)
The New York office
was opened by the founders of the Firm in 1908, the same year women competed in the modern Olympics for the first time. While the Firm moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in 1972, the New York office remains a critical branch of the Firm today, paying tribute to the firm's deeply rooted traditions by undervaluing support staff, requiring formal business attire, and excluding Jews.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 7:02 AM on June 3, 2006
(19 comments)
This evening, I entertained myself with these clips from YouTube and Google Video.
Come inside if you like Bette Davis, Charles Laughton, Kubrick, Frankenstein, Shakespeare, and company...
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 7:38 PM on May 21, 2006
(46 comments)
The Island of Misfit Games
features treasures such as Tower of Babylon, "a baffling high speed game composed of 120 hand painted (3 segments on each piece) tongue depressors.", Quackshot, "the most violent children's game ever created," and Grade Up to Elite Cow, a "game about bull semen." When I was a kid, my favorite was "
Voice of the Mummy," which featured a little record player embedded in the board.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 2:24 PM on September 26, 2005
(5 comments)
The Aquatic Ape Theory (often referred to as the AAT or AAH) says humans went through an aquatic or semi-aquatic stage in our evolution and that this accounts for many features seen in human anatomy and physiology. Using the principle of convergent evolution, it says that life in an aquatic environment explains these features, and that a transition from ape to hominid in a non-aquatic environment cannot. See also:
BBC (excellent),
Wikipedia,
Google.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 7:07 AM on September 20, 2005
(49 comments)
How To Win An Argument.
Plus, if you scroll down, you'll find an argument about "How To Win An Argument." (Which may remind you of a Monty Python
skit.) What do you think of this guy's strategy? Compassionate or passive-aggressive?
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 5:31 PM on September 5, 2005
(56 comments)
Collections:
Bakelite telephones,
beercans,
modified rubix cubes,
radios and
tubes,
insulators (
1) (
2),
minature cars,
pens,
novelty lamps,
nativities (warning: serious eyesore!),
bobble heads and
handcuffs.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 12:20 PM on October 16, 2004
(7 comments)
Nick Hornby discusses pop music in this NY Times essay:
"Maybe this split is inevitable in any medium where there is real money to be made: it has certainly happened in film, for example, and even literature was a form of pop culture, once upon a time. It takes big business a couple of decades to work out how best to exploit a cultural form; once that has happened, 'that high-low fork in the road' is unavoidable, and the middle way begins to look impossibly daunting. It now requires more bravery than one would ever have thought necessary to try and march straight on, to choose neither the high road nor the low. Who has the nerve to pick up where Dickens or John Ford left off?
In other words, who wants to make art that is committed and authentic and intelligent, but that sets out to include, rather than exclude? To do so would run the risk of seeming not only sincere and uncool - a stranger to all notions of postmodernism - but arrogant and vaultingly ambitious as well."
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 10:11 AM on May 26, 2004
(28 comments)
In 1969, Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" will be published on DVD.
December 31, 1969 to be exact. If you don't believe me, check
here too. apparently, 1969 was a good year, because it was also back then that Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" was
released. Oh, and if you want to read a copy of "Montenegro: The Bradt Travel Guide," by Annalisa Rellie, you'll just have to wait. It won't be available until
December 31, 1969. Other titles to be released on December 31, 1969 include "
Giant," these
movies and these
books. Now all I need is a
time machine!
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 5:54 PM on February 21, 2003
(14 comments)
Why Does Dan Savage Owe Katie a Hitachi Magic Wand?
It all started when Dan Savage informed his readers that he liked to fantasize about Brad Pitt coming on Ashton Kutcher's face. He was later inspired to have a contest in which readers sent in their sexual fantasies. He said that readers whose sexual fantasies were selected for publication would receive five dollars. I sent in a fanstasy I had when I was six years old (you'll read about it later). In a subsequent column, he canceled the contest, saying that all the fantasies he had received were boring. I shrugged it off, until...
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 4:01 PM on November 27, 2002
(42 comments)
Cicero, writing in the first century BC, mentions an instrument “recently constructed by our friend Poseidonius, which at each revolution reproduces the same motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets.” Archimedes is also said to have made a small planetarium, and two such devices were said to have been rescued from Syracuse when it fell in 212BC.
This reconstruction suggests such references can now be taken literally.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 4:43 PM on September 30, 2002
(9 comments)
Magnificent Obscessions
II. In the original post, we had a blast exploring odd sites in which people displayed eccentric talents. MOs walk a thin line between genius and madness. These are people with "too much time on their hands." How I envy their crackpot devotion, energy and perfectionism. These are the True Geeks! (Fresh examples inside...)
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 9:27 PM on September 19, 2002
(14 comments)
"Dog Day Afternoon"
Is one of my
favorite movies. In it, Al Pacino plays a born loser who attempts to rob a bank in order to pay for his lover's sex-change operation. It's based on a true story, and you can read the original article that inspired the movie
here. Strangely, the real-life robber was able to pay for the sex-change operation with money he got from the proceeds of the film. Also of interest is this
French documentary about the crime.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 10:57 AM on September 1, 2002
(17 comments)
"Tooonight, we're going to have A TERRRRIBLE time! Boo ha ha ha ha,"
Sammy Terry used to say, and he was usually right, because he'd then show a movie like "The Monolith Monsters" or "The Tingler." Unless you grew up in Southern Indiana, you probably never heard of Sammy Terry. He was the local host of all B-horror movies, like Elvira only cornier (if that's possible!). His "cohost" was a rubber spider, dangling on a string. And his costume included dishwasher gloves (look closely at the picture). Of course, this being the Internet, someone has a created a Sammy Terry fan site:
here. Did anyone else grow up with wacky local shows? I'm not even gonna talk about "Cowboy Bob" and "Janie."
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee
at 1:42 PM on January 15, 2002
(33 comments)
